to booger up
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
estropear
- She accidentally boogered up the report by deleting several pages.
Examples
-
He always boogers up his assignments.
-
If you booger up the timing, the whole plan could fall apart.
-
Don't booger up your homework this time, or you'll have to redo it.
-
Don't booger up the presentation!
-
Don't booger up your homework this time, or you'll have to redo it.
-
If you booger up the timing, the whole plan could fall apart.
-
She accidentally booger up the report by deleting several pages.
Synonyms
641
6.3
To make a mistake that ruins what you are doing
597
2.8
To make a mistake that causes a problem
553
4.0
To break something so it does not work
203
9.9
To make a serious mistake that ruins something
65
2.7
To make people confused and things messy
63
6.0
To do something badly and spoil the result
37
9.9
To do something badly and ruin how it turns out
17
5.6
To make a silly or careless mistake
8
6.4
To make a mistake that ruins something because you are careless
5
9.1
To damage or spoil something often by carelessness
5
7.6
To ruin something by making mistakes or doing it badly
5
8.9
To spoil something by doing it badly
4
8.1
To make a mess of a plan or task by doing it badly
2
6.8
To make an embarrassing mistake because you are careless or nervous
2
5.4
To make a mistake especially by forgetting words on stage
2
6.7
Do a job badly and make a mess of it
1
9.9
To pass poo or, in slang, to fail and make a mess of something
1
9.9
To cause a lot of damage and chaos to a place or thing
1
7.9
To do something badly and ruin how it turns out
1
9.9
To ruin something by making a mistake or being careless
1
9.9
To do something so badly that it fails
To ruin something by doing it badly
To spoil or ruin something by making a careless mistake
To ruin something completely by making serious mistakes
To do something badly and make it fail
Antonyms
How Bad
∞
2.0
- Informal
- Informal
597
2.8
63
6.0
- Informal
27
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
booger + up
The literal noun 'booger' (nasal mucus) combined with the particle 'up' does not transparently yield the meaning 'to spoil or mess up'; there is no clear compositional relation between the parts and the idiomatic sense. This is colloquial/slang usage and not predictable from standard meanings or cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Booger up comes from the image of a sticky booger getting on something and making a messy, hard-to-clean spot as it spreads up. So, when you 'booger up' your work, you 'mess up' or 'spoil' it by making careless, sticky mistakes.